Barring of Muslim Group Violates Constitution

Published: January 4, 1992

To the Editor:

"A black Muslim group," you report (news article, Dec. 16), "was barred from using the Harlem public elementary school it rented for an event after Board of Education officials learned of posters advertising the title of the main speaker's speech: "Are Jews Hiding the Truth?" You quote James S. Vlasto, described as a spokesman for the New York City Board of Education, stating, "We cannot have hate or propaganda of any kind emanating from our schools."

It is understandable that government officials should be concerned about the increase in hatred, racism and anti-Semitism that seems to have engulfed our city. We share this concern. However, government officials must be scrupulously vigilant in guaranteeing that constitutional protections are not discarded.

It is well-established constitutional doctrine that whenever government permits private groups and individuals to use publicly owned facilities, such permission cannot be conditioned on the content of the speech or determined by whether government approves or disapproves of the group's political message. To do so is to violate the principles in the First Amendment of the Constitution.

This month, Associate Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, speaking for a unanimous Supreme Court, set forth the reasons for this doctrine when she stated "the Government's ability to impose content-based burdens on speech raises the specter that the Government may effectively drive certain ideas or viewpoints from the marketplace." To guard against such censorship the First Amendment prohibits government officials from making such content-based judgments and presumptively places this sort of discrimination beyond the power of government.

Denying the use of Public School 154 to the Lost-Found Nation of Islam for Mr. Vlasto's rationale is in direct violation of the First Amendment of the Constitution. NORMAN SIEGEL Executive Director, New York Civil Liberties Union New York, Dec. 17, 1991